French Open: Rohan Bopanna/Matthew knocked out in semi-finals

Indian tennis stalwart Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden were knocked out of the French Open after going down to the Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the semifinals here on Thursday.

The second-seeded Indo-Australian pair lost 5-7, 6-2, 2-6 to the eleventh seeded Italians.

The Australian Open winning pair overcame the challenge posed by Brazilians Marcelo Zormann and Orlando Luz 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the opening round.

They followed that triumph with a win over the Indo-Italian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela 6-7 [2-7], 6-3, 7-6 [10-8]) in the following round.

In the quarterfinals, Bopanna and his partner got the better of the Belgian duo of Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen 7-6 [7-3], 5-7, 6-1.

Besides winning the Grand Slam doubles at Melbourne, Bopanna and Ebden had also emerged winners in the Miami Masters earlier this year. They also played US Open final last year losing to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

After retiring from playing for India, Rohan Bopanna will feature in the 2024 Tokyo Olympics in the men's doubles and is expected to pick N Sriram Balaji as his partner.